Transfers and ZLC 11/5

Mga minamahal ko sa buhay, This this has been another busy week! We had transfers and our zone leaders council meeting which kept us very busy. Last, last week we got stuck in Baler due to some small landslides blocking the highway and some flooding because of heavy rains. Our schedule got really delayed and that is why my email was so short last week. It was quite the weekend driving through floods to pick up a couple missionaries and a senior couple who were stranded in a remote area, cleaning up the house of some elders who were flooded, and picking up departing missionaries. We also were able to work in 3 different proselyting areas in Baler because we were stuck there for a while. The only down side was we weren't planning on staying very long so we didn't pack a lot of clothes. Elder Adao and I ended up washing our clothes in a bucket at night, hanging them up to dry while we slept and then we ironed them in the morning to finish getting them dry. It actually worked out ok! The best part of the weekend was being to do service. The Lord gave us so many opportunities to serve others. We were in the right time at the right place and I know it was all because of the Lord. Even though it seemed like a lot of things went wrong something happened everyday which was evidence that the Lord wanted us where we were doing what we were doing. It was like he put a little signature of everyday through something little that had real significance to me. This past week transfers went really well. We had 15 departing missionaries and 16 arivals. It was sad to see the departing missionaries go. I know a lot of them really well. They were a very solid batch. They all served really well. Things went really smooth, especially considering that transfers were on all saints day. A huge holiday in the Philippines were everyone goes to the cemetery and visits the graves of their family members. It always is fun to be with new missionaries. They just have this excitement that is contagious. This was a big group how came in and they will do a lot of good things for the mission. There were 2 missionaries who didn't go home until saturday because there were 2 families who didn't This past week we had our zlc meeting again and it was my favorite zone leaders council I have attended yet. The spirit was so strong. Especially in our testimony meeting. I don't think I have ever been in a more powerful testimony meeting than that one. There were no thank-amoies, or long stories just pure beautiful testimony. Elder Adao and I gave a workshop about Leadership and light. We talked about light in a scriptural sense and then we talk about how we as leaders need to be a light to others and to help increase the light in others. It was awesome. Elder Adao and I had a less-preparation time than we have in the past to make our workshop but because of that I felt like we were guided more by the spirit. The Spirit is the real teacher. When the spirit is with us darkness leaves and light can fill our minds and lives. Our zlc meeting was a great time for revelation and to be spiritually fed. This past week we finally got the rescue book done. We had the cover handpainted and it is beautiful! I am very happy with it. It's worthy to go to the prophet! I am so thankful for my testimony. I keeps me going everyday. I love my Savior and I know him. He loves us all. This is his work. I know that the Lord guides us to the places we need to be if we listen to the promptings of the holy ghost. If we look closely at everyday, we will the Lord's hand orchestrating our lives. It's such an amazing thing to see that happen. Next week I want to write about some of the experiences I have been having with the Book of Mormon lately. Lots of good stuff. Also this week we will start our traveling and I am excited to do a lot of teaching. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman

Trapped in Baler Oct 29

Dear loved ones, This past weekend has been a week to remember to say the least. It has been soooo busy! I am really sorry this is sooooo extremely short. Today we had the departing missionaries in with us and it was so busy. THis past week was good and It's now time to leave the office. President will probably let me write you a little longer email tomorrow after the missionaires go home so I can fill you in on the week and how things are going. mahal ko kayo I love the work Love Elder Leishman

Malapit na ang transfers muli/ Oct 22

Dear Family, This past week has been another wonderful week. Lots of stuff happened. We had interviews in 4 zones, went on exchanges, finished the rescue book and did some other awesome stuff. This past week I had a couple cool experiences. One of them happened in San Jose. This past week we had interviews in San Jose in the morning but that afternoon we had interviews at the neighboring zone. When we left San Jose we accidently took the key to the stake center with us and we didn't have time to take the key back until that evening. When we went back to take the key we called the sisters who borrowed it to meet them in their area. They were in a lesson so we parked and bought a little bit of food because we hadn't eaten since that morning. The sisters then came and met us and when we went back to the car we saw a man looking oddly at the car. We decided to talk to him and we found out he was a less-active member who wanted to come back to church. We quickly called the sisters to come back and were really happy to meet this less-active man. We had a wonderful conversation and the man is excited to listen to the missionaries again and to come back to church. After this happened I felt really glad that we forget to give the key back that morning. I feel like there was a reason behind it. Another one of the great expereinces that happened happened yesterday here in Angeles. Every Sunday we work with the Zone leaders here but yesterday they had a meeting with President Martino and the Stake president so Elder Adao and I didn't have anyone to work with. There was one appointment that we went to but the man we were going to visit wasn't home. We really knew of no where else to go so we started walking down unfamiliar streets knocking on doors. It felt like we were opening an area. Elder Adao and I felt like we were opening up a new area. After talked to many people who weren't interested we decided to go down an ally and we tao-poed the first house we saw. A woman came out with her 18 year old son who welcomed us into their home. We all sat down on their cool cement floor and Elder Adao and I shared a lesson with them about the restoration. We found out that she had seen missionaries walk past her house for years but no one had ever tried to talk to her. She also told us how for a long time she had forgotten about God in her life and had recently started praying again. We tuaght a wonderful lesson with their family and the spirit was amazing. The house seemed to light up as we taught. We are going to go back and teach again this week. This week my testimony has really grown that the Lord will lead us to his children we can bless and help. The Lord's timing really is always perfect. Transfers are already next week. Nothing is sure yet but my guess is I'll be staying with Elder Adao for another transfer. I love working with Elder Adao. He is an amazing missionary and we work well together. Another piece of good news is we finally got our rescue book out to the printers! It has been so wonderful to work on this book. I have absolutely loved working on a gift for the prophet. This week we will get hte finished product and I am so excited to see how it turns out. We have put many, many hours into this project. I always say this but I really love being a missionary. It just is such a happy work. It's jsut great being to focus on the Gospel all day everyday. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman

Conference 10/15

Dear family and friends, This past week was a wonderful week! I absolutely loved conference. That by far was a highlight of the week! What a spiritual feast. some of my favorite talks from the work were from Elder Bednar, President Uchdorf, Elder Nelson and President Monson. They were such wonderful talks and I feel like there were some awesome themes throughout conference. I loved the focus of family, missionary work, discipleship and conversion. I have to say that I am so excited for the announcement about the new age that young men and young women can leave on missions. The Lord truly is hastening his work. I think there will be many, many more sisters going on mission and well and an increase of Elders. This will be a blessing for every mission. The Sisters in our mission do awesome work and getting more of them would be a huge blessing. I feel like so many things from general conference were said just for me. I wish I had lots of time to write lots on this subject, but I don't. But if you have questions "Ask the missionaries. They can help you". I loved that talk. It really is so true. If you know anyone who needs the Gospel. Help them ask the missionaries! This week we had one really cool experience with the Book of Mormon Activity we have been doing. When we decided that we were going to do the finding Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon activity, we ordered English Book of Mormons' to distribute to the missionaries because we don't have a lot of English Book of Mormon. We usually only use Tagalog in proselyting. We ordered them a few weeks of. We were waiting for our Book of Mormon's to come in and they didn't come so we called to follow our order up and it turned out that the PBO was out of stock as well. We were able to get Book of Mormon's out to 8 out of our 11 zones but we still needed more. After a couple more days we got news that the order came into manila and they shipped them out on a truck, but they said it could take days before they came. Elder Adao and I prayed and prayed and they didn't end up coming. Then last Monday night. The night before we left to travel for interviews (the last possible chance we could get Book of Mormon's out to the missionaries in time for them to finish in time) Elder Adao and I knelt in prayer and asked for the Lord's help with the Book of Mormons. After the prayer we both felt a calm assurance that it would be o.k. and we knew that we could get the Book of Mormon's in the next day. The following morning we left at 7:00 am and they hadn't come yet but our interviews that morning were in Angeles which is only 30 minutes away from the mission home. Angeles was was one of the zone's without Books of Mormon. As the interviews started and as workshops were going own Elder Tischner (One of the senior office Missionaries) showed up with 3 boxes of English BOM! The timing was amazing. It couldn't have been more last minute. It was an experience that taught me that if the Lord wants you to do something he'll make a way for you to do it. It also taught me about the power of prayer. Just like President Monson's talk I know that the Lord answers our prayers. He always does it in a really unique way and his timing is always perfect. It's not usually the timing you expect but it's the time the Lord needs. That was one of our miracles this past week. Yesterday while working with Elder Tating I felt prompted to aproach a young man texting on his cell phone in a subdivision we were in. As we started to talk to him I immediately knew why. It turns out he is a graduate from college with no job, and doesnt' really have a direction for his life. We started to talk to him about the Plan of Salvation and how Heavenly father has a plan for us while we are here on this earth. He invited us to go into his house and we were able to teach him about the Plan of Salvation he had lots of questions and he readily accepted commitements. Elder Tating and his companion and going back on tuesday and I am really excited to hear about how it goes. I love being a missionary. I love the Gospel. mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman

The Book of Mormon 10/8

Dear Friends and Family, This past week has been another super, super busy week! It was also an awesome week! One of the things I really enjoyed about this last week was our ZLDLC or the Zone Leader District Leader Council. These were the meetings where we introduced the the Book of Mormon as our topic for the month. President gave training and Elder Adao and I had the opportunity to give a workshop on the Book of Mormon as well. We taught about the Book of Mormon as the keystone of our religion and focused on how it is a testimony of Jesus Christ. The spirit was so strong as we taught that workshop. The more I study the Book of Mormon the more I realize how amazing it is. We also started off zone interviews this week and at every zone interviews Elder Adao and I do some training as well. After much prayer and study we decided to do our workshop on using the scriptures in teaching. This is such an important part of becoming and effective teacher. We noticed on our exchanges that this is one thing that we can improve on as a mission so we chose this topic as our workshop. We have noticed that a lot of less-active members and investigators we teach don't read the Book of Mormon because they don't understand how much it will bless their life. Part of our workshop was teaching missionaries how to use the book of Mormon in teaching to help others see how it can bless their lives. Elder Adao and I prepared really well for this workshop but while we were on our way out there we had a couple impressions come to our mind about changing a couple things in our workshop that morning. We both felt good about it so when we changed our workshop when the time came. It was amazing how well the missionaries reacted the the little part we changed. It was like something clicked in their heads immediately and they understood what we were trying to teach them. I am so glad that we followed the prompting we had to change what we had already prepared. I know that if we prepare the Lord will guide us in all we do. Preparation is crucial guidance in the moment you need it. You can't prepare once your there. We weren't able to watch general conference this past week because it's re-broadcast here the week after. That means I will have the opportunity to watch conference this upcoming weekend. I am so excited for conference! I don't know if I have every looked forward to a conference this much in my life! It's always amazing how I feel like so many things that the speakers say are said just for me and how I receive answers to so many questions I have already prepared a lists of questions I have right now for conference and I am excited for the answers I receive through the holy ghost and through the words of living prophets. Lately things have been really busy with lots of unexpected things happening. I have learned to love this quote that president says, "Everyday brings problems to solve and relationships to savor". He says it's from Gordon B. Hinckley. It is such a wonderful way to look at things. There are always problems to solve and we should look at everyday as an opportunity to serve and enjoy our relationships with others. When you look at things that way problems don't seem as heavy and you enjoy life rather than endure it. I love this work. It's so true! mahal ko kayo Love Elder Leishman